Teaching Others in Order to Learn, 3

You have a topic to prepare, you have a class scheduled, and you have a big question. "Do I know this material well enough to teach it?"

If you've asked yourself that, you've focused on the wrong question. You must ask yourself, "Do I know this material well enough that I don't have to teach it?"

What do I mean by this? Well, in many universities, the most experienced professors teach teach the introductory courses. In many cases, they choose to do this so that they themselves master the basics of their discipline. As they assimilate these basics, they achieve a new level of mastery. 

Now the prof does not have to teach the content in order to know it. At this point, a smart teacher will shift focus from knowing the material to the techniques that impart it to his student/disciples. 

In your teaching experience, only at that point do you move from teaching others so that you yourself may learn, to becoming a master ready to make teachers of others.

Hear the Word of the Lord

Whole Brain Teaching gives us an attention-getter, "Class!/Yes!" However, I wanted something to attract special attention when I quoted Scripture.

I came up with the idea of saying, "Hear the Word of the Lord," and having the class respond with, "Speak, Lord, your servant hears."

Here is the script I wrote for teaching this response:

Hey hey, Class!/Hey hey, Yes!

I have a story to tell you from the Bible.

Long ago, before Israel had a king, Samuel's mother took him to live in the Tabernacle with Eli, the priest.

When I say, "Teach," teach your partner the story, so far.

Teach, I say. (Okay, I say)

Class!/Yes!

One night, as Samuel lay sleeping, he heard a voice calling, "Samuel, Samuel."

Teach-aroo! (Okay-aroo!)

Class!/Yes!

Samuel thought Eli had called him so he went to Eli's room, but Eli said, "I did not call you. Go back to bed."

Tee-ee-each! (Oka-a-ay!)

Class!/Yes!

Samuel heard the voice two more times, and finally, Eli said that God was calling Samuel, and he should say, "Speak, Lord, your servant hears."

Teach! Okay!

In this class, God speaks to us through the Bible. When I am about to give you a quote from the Bible, I will say, "Hear the Word of the Lord." (Repeat)

So, teach! (So, okay!)

Class!/Yes!

When I say, "Hear the Word of the Lord," you answer by saying, "Speak, Lord, your servant hears." You are saying that to God, not to me.

Teach! (Okay!)

Class!/Yes!

What do you say, when I say, "Hear the Word of the Lord"? (Speak, Lord, your servant hears.)

Good. Let's practice.

John 3:16. Hear the Word of the Lord. (Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Testing the Techniques

This morning I spoke at a Christian, residential drug & alcohol rehab facility. I used this as my first opportunity to try out the Whole Person/Whole Brain Teaching techniques in a group. With thirteen men present, one had to pair up with my wife Laura.

I started by introducing them to the "Class!/Yes!" and "Teach!/Okay!" responses. They got this very well and needed only a little practice. I also taught them a response that I made up for whenever I quoted Scripture: "Hear the Word of the Lord/Speak, Lord, your servant hears." (More on this in another post)

Some of the men have come from Christian backgrounds, while others have not. In either case, I wanted to give them something that would help them when they left the home to rejoin society. Therefore, I spoke to them about the place of daily prayer and Bible reading in their walk with God.

Here's the simple outline, without all the Whole Person techniques:

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Discipleship: Prayer, Bible Reading & Obedience

1) To be a disciple you must not only believe, but follow and obey Jesus.

Matthew 9:9 - As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, "Follow me." He got up and followed him.

Matthew 28:19-20 - Go and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.

2) The best way to follow and obey is to pray and read your Bible every day.

I Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray without stopping.

John 5:39 - In this scripture, Jesus says, Search the Scriptures . . . these are they which testify of Me.

3) You also need to ask questions about what you read that will help you see how God wants you to change the way you think and the way you live.

i) What does this passage tell me about the character of God?

ii) Does this passage teach me a good thing to imitate? Does it teach me a bad thing to avoid?

iii) If I really believe this passage is God's truth, how should my life change?

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On the way home, Laura and I evaluated this new -- or at least, new to us -- method.

1. On the minus side, some of the men who had been there a only few days still had to cope with foggy brains and had a hard time with these "strange" procedures. On the plus side, they did not give up, even one man who got pretty frustrated.
2. No one fell asleep. I've had men fall asleep on me before, and I expect this because at first they spend sleepless nights coming off drugs/alcohol plus facing issues of conscience. Today I had full attention and full participation.
3. Even though some did not perform perfectly, by and large, they seemed to enjoy themselves. Teaching accompanied by an emotional response tends to stick in the memory better.
4. The one man who spent the whole time in frustration came up to me afterwards and said, "I've been here eight days, and I'm lost." Now, I'm pretty sure by "lost' he meant confused rather than unsaved, but I'm sure both meanings applied to him. 

I prayed with him, asking God's grace to open his mind and heart to the Word, to give him focus and understanding." If you're a believer reading this, take a moment to pray for Steve. I know he hears the Gospel daily at Home With a Heart. What he needs is the quickening power of the Holy Spirit.

The Discipleship Garden: Planted and Watered

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (1Corinthians 3:6)

I was my veterinarian's senior English teacher. He came from a Christian home, and his parents had planted the seed of God's Word in his life. They had also nurtured him in the faith.

In school and after his graduation, the Lord granted me the honor of taking part in the watering process. I discipled the young man through his college and veterinary school years, and after he married, I became his pastor. 

Today, he and his wife have children, mostly grown, who carry on a walk with God.

My veterinarian's parents planted and I watered.

About five years after moving to Possum Kingdom, I received an evening phone call from a man who, as a teen, had attended a church I served as pastor. Since that time, he had become a Christian, married and had children. 

He thanked me for my efforts in striving for the souls God had placed in my care. Although I sowed the Word, I did not see any results in his life at the time.

Today he and his wife are my upholsterers. They have a young family whom they educate/disciple at home.

Clearly, I planted but others watered.

Even more clearly, God gave the increase. Whether you plant or water, therefore, give the glory to God whether you sow his seed or water his garden, for discipleship is true life, and  true life belongs to Him.

Teaching Others in Order to Learn, part 2

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Mathew 10:5-7)

I note that Jesus sent the twelve out to teach people about the Kingdom of God even though they were still disciples -- learners. I find this significant, since I've already demonstrated that the Bible recognizes the value of teaching in order to learn.

A story follows that lends credence to the teaching-to-learn model of discipleship & education.

Back in 1990 a university professor shared the secret of his academic success. He did it in a book entitled The Overnight Student: How I went from Straight F's to Straight A's.

Gary North tells the prof's story:

 The professor had been a mediocre student in high school. He had gotten into college, but he flunked out. He asked to get back in. He was told that he would have to take correspondence courses first. He did. This took him two years.

He was re-admitted. But he was working three part-time jobs to pay for school. He worked very hard. He just barely got by academically. Then he made a discovery. He began using a simple technique for improving his comprehension. He describes it in Chapter 7 of his little book. He never got anything lower than an A from that point on. ("The Number-One Study Technique for Mastering New Material and Reviewing Old Material", garynorth.com)

The book now sells on Amazon for about a thousand dollars, used. The excerpt that follows reveals the kernel of his method:

Isaiah 28:13 tells us that the Lord teaches by giving us precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little. [King James Translation] So, start at the beginning of your notes, your book, or whatever your source document is; and pick a bite-size portion, perhaps a paragraph,

and read it. Now look away from your notes or cover them, and don’t touch them. You won’t be allowed to touch them while you’re taking the test, so let’s get rid of that security blanket right now.

Use Your Tongue

Now, teach what you just read, out loud, using your own words, to an imaginary class. Don’t talk in a monotone. Vary your voice inflection. Use your hands. Be a teacher. (Dr. Michael L. Jones, p.25, Louis Publishing, Bellingham, WA)

When I first learned of this, I tried it, and I want to tell you, it required a lot of focus. In fact, I found it so mentally taxing that I gave up. 

The difference between this Jones method and Whole Person Discipleship (via Whole Brain Teaching) lies simply in the fact that you don't have to imagine an audience. Your disciple teaches the bite-sized bit of learning to another disciple, right there. Personalizing the message in his/her own words will come automatically and improve over time.

Thus, while it encourages me to have corroboration of the teaching-to-learn model, it gives me even greater pleasure to know that I have access to an equal or better method, more easily applied.